Photo tour of our new home

I've had these photos for at least a month, but never found the time to post them. I guess part of the reason is that I didn't think anyone would really be interested in seeing our house. After all, it's just a standard apartment; nothing remarkable in my opinion although by now it does feel like "home" to us and that is enough! :)

So, due to the prompting of a few readers... here we go! :)

This is what you see as you enter our living room. (There is a fireplace on the left -- see top picture.) The bookshelves hold the majority of Joshua's library of Biblically-related books. :) I do have one shelf of my own books, and there are a couple of shelves that are empty right now, as Joshua is selling a few books that he already owns digitally.

The cedar chest holds extra blankets and sheets. :)

The futon doubles as a couch (day time) and a bed (night time). We put the air mattress under the futon mattress for sleeping; it's actually quite comfortable and was the most affordable solution we could come up with, since we already owned the futon and the air mattress.

Because, embarrassingly, we have too much stuff for our 2-bedroom apartment! One bedroom is used for the children's beds and clothes and toys, and the other bedroom, which should be our bedroom, is full... of other stuff. A dresser. Another bookshelf. Two desks. An exercise bike. A few buckets of grain and a few totes of stuff.

Ahhh, stuff. We didn't really keep that much stuff, but in an apartment, everything has to be stored indoors. The stroller. Tools. A fan. The infant car seat. Tennis equipment. My wedding dress. Board games. The box of stuff that needs to be dropped off at GoodWill. Everything.

So, we fit everything into our bedroom except for the bed. Oh well, a little camping out in the living room never hurt anyone. If only the children hadn't all discovered that they can come and camp out with us during the night, and we're too groggy to notice... ;)

The other side of the living room. That bookshelf holds school books, children's books, puzzles, crayons, etc. You can see the kitchen and dining room from here. (I already posted a photo tour of the kitchen here, in case you missed it!)

Standing in the dining room, you can see the entryway on the left side. The plastic dresser holds our coats, hats, gloves, flashlights, scarves, and the children's shoes. The adult shoes are in the two boxes beside the plastic dresser. This entry way is kinda tight so we're trying to stick to the basics to keep things under control. :) It is a constant job, though, whenever we go in or out! :)

In the picture above, the living room is on the right, and straight ahead is the children's bedroom. Let's head in there...

Yehoshua and Eliyahu share bunk beds. My parents actually bought these bunk beds second-hand when I was about 8 or 9 years old! When Ruth came along, Yehoshua and Eliyahu moved from their two cribs to these bunk beds. :)

Here is Ruth's crib, and the small dresser that holds Yehoshua's clothes. See Ruth reaching to try to touch her quilt? :)

The children's bedroom in our last house was a bit smaller and had no closet, so this room feels spacious! I wasn't accustomed to storing their clothes in a closet, so right now we're using the closet to store toys, clothes that don't fit the children right now, etc. I get out a few toys at a time for them to play with; the rest stays in the closet. :)

The top of Yehoshua's dresser has the children's story Bible (which we really like!), a little lamp, and a cd player. Having a cd played in their room has been fun! (The electrical outlets in their last bedroom didn't allow such. ;))

I usually keep two cds of classical music out at all times: a calming, soothing cd for at bedtime or during a "rest time" (which we take as needed, maybe once or twice a week; the boys don't usually sleep but the "time out" helps them re-adjust their attitudes if it's been a rough day!) and a more exciting, upbeat cd for during the day.

The Pooh quilt hanging on Ruth's bed was a baby gift for Yehoshua when he was born. :) I love quilts. :)

The other side of the bedroom has two dressers. The tall dresser holds Eliyahu's clothes, miscellaneous baby stuff (baby toys, hair stuff for Roo, etc.) and baby blankets/bedsheets.

The long dresser functions as a changing table and holds Ruth's clothes and some cloth diapering stuff. :)

On top of the changing table is a big stack of my homemade prefold cloth diapers. I love the various colors and designs... so cheerful! :) These diapers have gotten a lot of use from Ruth already. (I had some inexpensive store diapers which I used for Yehoshua and Eliyahu. By the time Ruth was born, those diapers were in shreds -- literally!)

And my newest cloth diapering love... wool soakers! I was given one as a baby gift when Ruth was born and LOVE IT!! Then, a kind blog reader sent me two more that her girls had outgrown. And just recently I bought two more for Ruth, since she was outgrowing the smaller one. I am blessed to have a friend who knits and loves to make soakers! ;)

Okay, enough about diapers! :) On to the bathroom...

This bathroom is really nice! It's bigger than our last bathroom, and has two towel racks, plus a big cabinet above the sink with a huge mirror! The light fixture is pretty, and there's an exhaust fan! We definitely upgraded in the bathroom department. ;)

I couldn't find a good place to display my wedding bouquet, so I hung it in the bathroom! :)

...and here's the rest of the bathroom. I pulled aside the shower curtain; otherwise, that's about all you'd see in this picture -- shower curtain and wall! ;)

I did find a trick to making our bathroom feel a little more spacious. I use a laundry basket as a laundry hamper in there, and putting the basket in the bath tub saves some floor space. We just have to take it out for baths/showers, and put it back in afterwards. :)

Comments

What a lovely tour!! Your place looks cozy and clean and your spaces organized!!! Do your children play mostly in the living room or in their room? When do you usually take them outdoors each day?
Tereza

The boys usually play in their bedroom, since it's roomy enough for that. (Their toys when not in use are stored under their bed or else just all piled on the car rug in there. The small[er] amount of toys they get to have out at one time, that is.)

Our original plan was to leave enough floor space in the living room for them to play there, since that's where they pplayed at our last house (bedroom was toooo small!) but everything's so close here, they can play in either room and I can still supervise. :D

Our wlks are usually late-morning or early-afternoon. It depends on what I'm doing (like making bread or something -- I have to work it around that!) and also it's too cold to go super early. I am guessing in the summer we'll go right after breakfast, if it's light outside! :)

Thanks for the tour! i would never have thought to put a laundry basket IN the shower. Seems like common sense. Before i was married I always lived in apartments that were never big enough to put in a hamper, or clothes basket. I would have loved a small mirror like you have. In the apartments I lived in had a wall length mirror. It was a pain to clean! And I always had ugly light fixtures. I couldn't wait to get a house, that I could change the fixtures if need be.

Thanks so much for posting your tour. You have such a sweet & special family and it is fun to keep up with you. I had a quick question if you wouldn't mind answering. As a mom to three also (5,3, & 1) how do you work the nap situation with all of your kids sharing a room? Do your older 2 do a quiet time and how do you keep them from waking the baby?
May God bless your family!
Amy

Usually Ruth is the only one napping, so I can put her to bed and tell the boys to stay out of the room. :)

We only do "quiet time" if the boys are misbehaving constantly... it's kind of a rest/time-out where I make them lay quietly and rest for 30-60 minutes. That happens once a week or so... not really too often. Eliyahu (3) is likely to fall asleep, but Yehoshua is very unlikely to ever take a nap! :)

Anyway, when we do that, I do something nearby so I can keep a close eye on them (fold laundry, cooking, etc.) and make them be quiet and restful. Sometimes they do wake up Ruth or disturb her... at bed time, too... it can be annoying but that's just how it is, so... :)

Ruth has gotten better at sleeping through noise! But she would probably sleep longer if it were quiet. ;)

We did that in our double wide home. :) It works great for creating more floor space!

Your home is very clean and organized. You inspire me in the small-amount-of-toys-department. I need to get on that... we have much more room in our house now that we've finished the basement so the temptation for allowing lots of toys, is easily accomodated. Lots of toys seems to make for lots of unhappy children. My kids are usually content to play with tools, cardboard boxes and scraps of fabric. :) I think having lots of toys overwhelms them... or something?!

Thanks for sharing! I have three little ones as well (4, 2 1/2, and 7 months) and our house is nowhere near as organized as yours! I love visiting your site for inspiration in the cleaning department. And cooking, of course.

I will miss those photos of your laundry flapping in the breeze and the photos of your days spent canning garden produce. I was wondering if you will miss that part of your life, too. Will you miss the access to a garden and being able to put up food for the colder months? Will you continue hanging your clothes indoors through the warm months where you are?

Thank you so much for sharing :). You have some awesome organizational skills! Want to hear something funny :)? Back when we were expecting our second we moved from a two bedroom to a three bedroom rental because we "needed" the room. About two years later God started to do a work in us and we changed our mind on certain priorities. Nowadays, with a total of five children, we have fun speculating how high we could "stack'em up" in a three bedroom house ;). When Lee's dad came to stay with us we realized that we could make it fairly comfortably in a two bedroom right now if we had to which makes our three bedrooms seem like such a luxury :).

The fireplace is woodburning, and we haven't used it yet. We're on the top floor so we haven't needed much heat, actually!

I've used my drying rack on the balcony a few times and in the living room a couple times. Much of the past few months, we haven't really been using any heat and it's been damp... I think it will be drier here in the summer though! :)

Not sure about the canning... just not sure. I had been borrowing some canning supplies from my mom. And I left my huge canner with her since I knew we'd be short on storage space. I'm not sure if, after buying a bushel of tomatoes and processing it, if it would really save me much money... depends on the prices I guess. :) So, I may do smaller batches and just freeze smaller amounts. We'll see. :)

I've seen a few homes where they place a large set of beautiful candles in the fire place. It's so cozy~ I've never seen them lit but can imagine the flickering flames really add to the home aptnosphere (sp?) without putting out too much heat OR having to buy and haul wood (or store!)into your upstairs apartment. Just thought I'd pass that along! Did anything change since this tour?
PS You can go ahead and delete my old account (mama) cause I accidently made two accounts a long time ago and like this one better:)
http://cookingwithlittles.blogspot.com

Is the futon comfortable as a couch? We are in need of a new couch, and have thought about a futon. The seat part of the futon just looks much larger than a regular couch and I'm short with short legs. Just wondering if it was comfortable.

Our leather couch was much more comfy... there are nicer futons out there; ours is a $99 one from many years ago. The mattress on it is really thin (can feel the bars underneath) and also the seat part is so wide -- to sit with your back against the back of the futon, your legs need to be straight out since your knees end up not at the edge of the mattress!

We got another thin futon mattress to add to our futon and that has helped with the comfortability issue as well as the wide seat part, but even the two thin mattresses together -- Joshua could still feel the bars! So we added the air mattress for the bed part. Haha. :)

Maybe you can try out a futon at a furniture store. There are nice ones that have thicker pads but cost more like $400 I think.

We loved our leather couch (which we had gotten second hand) but sold it when we moved, since the futon is multi-purpose and we knew we'd be short on space. :)

I have lived with a few futons in my college student years. Some ok, others really bad. I second Tammy's idea to test them out. The mattress you get 'free' with the frame is not thick enough. An old roommate bought one for a shocking $700 (floor model). That was the most comfortable futon I had ever slept on. It literally felt like a bed mattress. It also didn't look as much like a futon because that mattress was so thick. That alone could be a selling point as I personally don't care for the look of futons, I just like their handiness.

It was neat to tour your place and see what it's like.
You might laugh but I don't think I've ever been in an apartment before. Oh wait, I take that back. I went in one for a birthday party about 5 years ago.... it was a 2 bedroom, I think.
But it looks like things aren't too crowded there! Bunk beds are space savers--we've had them forever :)
The bedrooms like they are good sized.
What are the wool soakers for? ;)
You're so organized; it looks great! Oh, and I love all your quilts... makes the place really "homey" feeling.
Thanks again for the tour!
Blessings,
Samantha

May I ask how you handle not having your own bedroom? My husband and I consider our bedroom a very sacred place and worth doing without many things. We also consider it important for the children to know that mommy and daddy have their own space that is just for them. Kinda helps to set the tone in that way that the parental relationship is the big priority.

Even if I weren't married, not having a bedroom I could retreat to when necessary would be very uncomfortable for me.

I'm not really sure how to answer this... I suppose I would rather not have a bed and have a functional living room than to either move our desks/storage/clothes/books or else move bunk beds and a crib into the living room...
I know the ideal way is to have a calm, peaceful, uncluttered bedroom as a haven and place of rest. :) Perhaps we are clinging too strongly to things like books, extra blankets, an exercise bike (which we do use), a computer desk/computer, things like balls and tennis stuff and a stroller...
...or maybe the idea of an uncluttered home + all of the things we "need" isn't very easy in an apartment... I don't know! It's a tricky balance and I wouldn't say we've completely arrived. :)
As far as logistics... our children wake up at 6am and go to bed at 7pm. We can close their bedroom door when they go to bed and have the rest of the house to ourselves! :) It's certainly not as nice as having a bedroom with a bed though. I can imagine it will only get more challenging as our children grow older. Maybe someday we'll have more space.
We were kinda combining an enclosed porch, garage, basement, office, and our bedroom all into one small room. We got rid of a lot, and the room isn't crammed or cluttered... it's just not big enough for a bed. :)

You have inspired me to unpack my cloth diapers! My water costs in Ohio are through the roof but I figure two loads a week (I have a ton of diapers collected through the years)extra laundry won't be that noticable.
This has to be cheaper even with the huge water bills we have in my area? Right?

We had city water in Ohio...honestly, without coupons, disposable diapers are kinda expensive -- at least $30/mo. for me/my kids/when I priced it (and we used disposables during our recent cross-country move -- I did use coupons, but still! Ouch!). I know our water/gas (for the water heater) bills didn't increase by $30/mo when I started cloth diapering...

Can you line-dry the diapers when the weather turns warmer? That will really increase the savings as well! :)

I just recently switched to cloth diapers! But I am very interested in wool covers. I knit and I found many patterns online that look easy enough, but.... after you lanolize them how do they work? Is there wicking? Can you put pants over them or will the pants get wet? What about riding in the car, does the compression of sitting cause the soaker to leak? Sorry for all the questions that maybe are redundant, but I just don't get how they work.... Thanks